Education for Children with Disabilities in Kabul

In 2005, the most recent year with data available for disability statistics in Afghanistan – approximately 2.7% of the population had severe disabilities and this jumped to 4.7% when less severe disabilities were also considered. Disability is highly stigmatized in Afghanistan, with disability bias accounting for why most children and especially girls with disabilities face exclusion and stigmatization. Because of these stigmas most children with disabilities in Afghanistan are not educated (USAID, 2018).

The founder of the Rahyab School for children with disabilities located in Kabul, Parwin Azimi (an expert of sign and Brail language, and the author of Afghanistan’s sign dictionary) mentioned that over 75% of children with disabilities do not attend school. Lack of awareness and support at the country’s decision-making level has lead to minimal infrastructure at health centres or schools for children with disabilities.

AfD is proud of its collaboration with the Rahyab School, where it supports education programmes for nearly 650 children with hearing impairment. In accordance with our organization’s goal of “healthy families, empowered communities”, we provide food for the children and their families as an incentive to allowing children to attend the school.

As we approach the end of the year, we would like to thank all our donors for their kind support and we hope for the year 2020 to continue supporting children's education in Afghanistan with your help!

Wishing you and your families a prosperous and healthy New Year,

The Team at AfD